How your EMV terminal can make your point of sale seamless, app-free, and quick.

Generation Z will represent 30% of global consumers by 2019. Their lives are preternaturally digital, never having grown up without a vibrant online ecosystem. They want credit card processing to be instant, personalised, and relevant. Traditional banking simply cannot meet those expectations anymore.

Mobile payment options are disrupting the point of sale (PoS) industry in the best of ways, but the future looks even brighter for those who stay ahead of innovation. A new generation of credit card readers is arising to meet today’s reward-focused consumers.

Credit card processing companies like SumUp are bringing their clients a new way to process payments, both through mobile phones and without them while leveraging the many benefits of Google and Apple Pay. Add a loyalty software partner, and you’ve completed your deck. Credit cards and e-wallets have been merged into a single Gen-Z-focused reader that fits consumer lifestyles precisely.

These days, you don’t simply pay--you get Siri to do it. You don’t merely swipe--you use facial recognition to access your wallet directly from your phone. You don’t just take credit card payments--you keep their data behind an impenetrable cryptographic wall.

The industry has turned payments into an engaging, marketable experience, and chip and sign processor businesses are making sure their clients can benefit. Retailers who accept credit card payments without bells and whistles now trail behind smarter rivals. An optimised PoS is a profitable PoS, and new retail liability laws aren’t the only reason for that.

The Importance of Old-Fashioned Credit Card Processors

Consumers spend up to 18% more when paying by credit card than with any other form of payment, but friendly fraud currently costs U.S. merchants $7 billion a year--a number set to quadruple by 2020. A slipshod credit card payment app and terminal doesn’t merely add to the problem. It creates new ones.

Chip and sign technology is the credit card industry’s response to easily-counterfeited magnetic strips. The integrated circuits they carry play the role of security tokens, and readers can add end-to-end encryption to the mix. This way, communications between servers and clients can only be decrypted by their unique recipients one payment at a time.

Much has happened since chip cards' introduction in 2005. UK merchants have become legally liable for fraudulent transactions if they’ve not done the due diligence involved in introducing chip-and-sign systems. The technology minimises fraud-related chargebacks by verifying each customer’s identity and removing your liability. If you’re still using the archaic magnetic strip, credit card companies will no longer cover your losses.

Chargebacks are rife, with 10% of retailers currently in excessive chargeback programs, and online CNP fraud having grown to 0.46% of UK transactions. Chip-based cards are making a dent in the numbers as thieves move to new, more accessible terrain. The new technology generates a new cryptogram for every payment, so approval codes can’t be duplicated for a fraudulent credit card payment.

Newer smart cards have a secure microcontroller that connects with a reader via radio frequency. Each service provider implements extra cryptographic protocols to verify and protect the identities of their users. In plain English, card data remains as private as it should be, and card theft is already being thwarted this way.

Your PoS strategy leaks into your profits in other unexpected ways. An innovative credit card payment processing service prevents abandoned shopping carts and keeps your processing costs down, so when Christmas or Black Friday descends in all its bustling furore, your queues will be shorter and suitably happier.

Accept card payments the easy way with SumUp

For just 1.69% per transaction your business can accept debit, credit and contactless payments.

Trading in a Mobile Age

Many card readers have found their wings. The industry’s best offerings are as mobile as your smartphone and equally pocket-friendly in both senses of the term. A SumUp reader comes without monthly costs or fixed fees. Simply fire up your Android app and you’re good to go, no matter how far from your flagship store or restaurant you might be.

Delivery people can carry pocket-sized credit card readers to client doors and take credit card payments through their mobile phones. Waitresses can process bills table-side, and travelling business people can accept credit card payments anywhere that has a mobile signal.

In 2018, SumUp also launched a standalone 3G reader that can process payments without the support of a mobile app. In so doing, the industry leader became the first in its niche to release an app-independent device, which makes use of a simple pay-as-you-go structure and free data card. Without the need for a mobile phone or app, payments are even nimbler than they were before. SumUp 3G shortens and streamlines payments elegantly, supporting a range of credit and debit cards, along with selected e-wallet products.

Single register startups pay from £1, 000 to implement their point of sale system, which generally costs a minimum of £1, 000 annually thereafter. SumUp has kicked that expense barrier down. As one of the most affordable readers on the market today, it packs value-added punch by letting you handle your entire PoS from one reader.

A tight payment strategy maintains your stock control and cash-ups while keeping your payments efficient, but it also creates credibility. Of course, the fees must leave your revenue in your bank account. If you’re a small business with low revenues, you shouldn’t be paying more than 1.7% in transaction fees. Your processing company should also be a solid long-term partner who will keep your PoS as technologically advanced as the industry it evolves in.

Point of sale software is one of your most integral systems, setting the pace of your daily dealings. The more integrated it is, the smoother your everyday logistics will be, and the better you'll serve your clients.

The Future of Chip-Based Cards

That humble card machine at your point of sale is no longer a mere credit card payment processor. You can make it an extension of your marketing campaign. It can manage a loyalty program through LoyVerse, Google and Apple Pay while embracing partnerships that make your revenue pop.

SumUp 3G card reader is a shining example of the financial services industry’s Technicolour new biome. You can now accept card payments anywhere in the UK. Google’s payment app lets users process their card payments through their own phones with a single tap.

Apple Pay achieves the same from iOS devices, including iPads, iWatches, and Mac desktops. Shoppers can pay on the very device on which they store movie tickets, virtual gift cards, and travel documents. When the day is over, all you need to do is cash up from your automated SumUp reading.

Inventory management has never been simpler: Your reader can manage it perfectly by connecting to Excel and populating your stock lists with your own product codes. SumUp keeps it simple: by offering free virtual terminals and SMS payments through an intuitive app that won’t tie you down in staff training. Its simple interface is turnkey enough to implement within a day.

How Payment Processing Impacts your Business Model

Millennial businesses are increasingly willing to break old moulds, so original thinkers are quickly populating the corporate and retail worlds. Amazon proved that a shop floor wasn’t needed when you could sell online. Skillshare proved that a retailer needn’t sell products or traditional services. Warby Parker demonstrated that the middleman could be cast aside in order to outpace a monopoly.

The humble point of sale was once a straightjacket keeping retailers within a single business model. As free-moving readers like SumUp evolve, retailers become less and less restricted by old ideas. When you can accept payments everywhere, you can reinvent retail and food service to suit your grandest goals, and that is as it should be. Take your reader to conferences and events across the country. Use it at product launches and send it to your clients’ doors with their deliveries. Trade wherever you are because entrepreneurship isn't supposed to limit you, but set you free.

Conclusions

Chip and sign technology removes yet another barrier to innovative freedom. Now you really can think differently about your business. Take it online, remove your middleman, or create a retail model the world has never seen before. It’s all possible when you don’t have to get tangled in the logistics and expenses of old-fashioned points of sale. Now you can fly, and SumUp has your wings.

In Summary

Millennials and Generation Z buyers expect an integrated credit card payment process that they can use for both cards and e-wallets. This can be achieved while minimising your expenses and maximising your security. SumUp is a UK payment leader who takes care of every PoS need.

If your PoS isn't providing low-cost mobile processing, inventory management, and reporting, SumUp will carry you into the future profitably.